Two Poems of Kedarnath Singh

H.S. Komalesha, Himanshi Pandey

 

Salvation

(Translation of “Mukti”)

 

When no path of salvation can be found

I have started to write

I want to write a ‘tree’

Knowing, to write a tree

is to become one

I want to write ‘water’.

 

‘Man’

I want to write about a man,

the soft palms of a child

the glow on a lady’s face.

 

With all my might

I want to toss the words towards a man

knowing nothing will happen

on a busy road

I want to hear the blast

of the clash

between a man and the word

knowing nothing will happen by writing

I want to write

 

 

In these words

(Translation of “Inhi Shabdo Mein”)

 

In these words

people walk somewhere

somewhere, it snows

somewhere, stranded till the neck in snow

a god stands

somewhere, a dagger gets sharpened

a woman moans somewhere

and somewhere from the pipe  of an boatman,

smoke rises

in these words

 

In these words,

somewhere

there would be a home

where they live

and somewhere

a home

where I don’t reside.